Yesterday, Rox, Tosin and I started the day in Talas City with a nice walk at the stadium. Around noon, I headed over to Cholpon College at the request of a neighbor/friend to talk with her teachers and classmates. They asked me to come more often for conversation practice. The older teacher wants a volunteer, knowing that even her language needs practice and she cannot answer all the students' questions (not that I can either...) They were friendly, I have the time and little other opportunity to talk with locals who have that level of English, so I've gotten myself a gig in the city.
Walking back to Rox's, I noticed a few flakes in the air but not enough to quite yet declare it as our first snow. After a quick lunch,, I jetted back to my village for lesson-planning at school that never happened, but I had a lovely tea break with some other teachers. Eventually, I went home, got some PC work done, and played with the kittens. The snow had really settled in by now, so host mom easily convinced me it was time to switch on my PC heater for the first time of the season.
So my kittens and I are snuggled in bed a couple hours into a comfortable sleep, when a noise creeps through my earplugs and wake me. I look towards it, just beside my bed, and see fire and a whole bunch of smoke. In seconds, my smoke detector starts flipping out. I pull out the battery-slot and run to the room where my host mom sleeps. She and my eldest sister help me put out the fire, then more the litter box and my bedding to where my younger sister sleeps. The fire destroyed my heater and a couple plugs. I'm hoping the smoke damage on my converter is simply cosmetic but have been too hesitant to check.
Maybe an hour after the kittens and I settled in again, my little sister came into the room, having missed all the excitement. I felt her look at me for a minute, then she pulled the blankets up over my shoulders and got herself into bed. My family is so kind and loving. I am a lucky girl.
